Monday, February 13, 2012

Ten Career Highlights of the Ottawa Senators Chris Phillips

Originally posted at: The Hockey Writers
Chris Phillips recently played in his 1,000th
career NHL game with the Ottawa Senators. In recognition of this
accomplishment, let’s take a walk down memory lane and look back on ten career
highlights from Chris Phillips.

1. Phillips was selected with the first overall pick in the
NHL entry draft in 1996 by the Ottawa Senators. The ’96 draft was a rather weak
draft as the first rounds other most notable names were players such as Andrei Zyuzin, Jean-Pierre Dumont who
were selected second and third. Ruslan
Salei, Dainius Zubrus, Derek Morris were also first round choices. The
Winnipeg Jets who five days later became the Phoenix Coyotes selected Daniel
Briere with the 24th selection. Hidden gems from that draft included
Zdeno Chara in the third round by
the New York Islanders, Pavel Kubina
in the seventh round by the Tampa bay lightning, and Tomas Kaberle in the eighth round by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

2. Phillips returned for another year of junior hockey and
finished that season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes where he helped the team
win the Western Hockey League Championship Presidents Cup by scoring 25 points.
Phillips won the Bill Hunter Memorial trophy as top defenseman in the WHL and
the team finished second in the Canadian Hockey leagues memorial Cup
tournament.

3. In 1996, and 1997 Phillips was part of Team Canada
in the IIHF World Junior Championship Tournament and Canada
won Gold both years.

4. In 1997 Chris Phillips made his NHL debut with the
Senators. In that season he played in 72 games scoring five goals and 16
assists in his rookie season.

5. In the 2002-2003 season the Senators won the presidents
Trophy and had a successful playoff run going all the way to the Eastern
Conference finals. In the Finals the Senators lost to New
Jersey but Phillips scored on of the biggest goals of
his career. Facing elimination in game six, the game went to over-time and
Chris Phillips was the hero scoring the game winning goal to stave off
elimination for one more game.

6. At the commencement of the 2006 season Phillips received
the honor of being named as one of the Senators alternate captains. During that
season, he reached his milestone career 500th game in the NHL with
the Ottawa Senators.

7. The 2006-2007 season was his career year. That season he
scored eight goals and had 26 points. He had a plus/minus of plus-36, which was
in the top ten of the entire NHL.

8. Chris Phillips represented Canada
again on the international stage when he played in the 2000, 2005 and 2009
World Championship earning the Silver medal in both ’05, and ’09.

9. In 2007 Phillips was within two wins of the Stanley Cup
as the Senators lost the Cup finals in game five to the Anaheim Ducks.

10. On February
ninth 2012 Chris Phillips played in his 1,000th career
NHL game at home versus the Nashville Predators. He has played his entire
career with the Ottawa Senators. Chris became only the 25th player
in NHL history to achieve this milestone playing his entire career with one team.
In the game, he scored his first goal of the season, and in a feel good
storyline he scored again doubling his goal total from a forgettable previous
season.

Last season was a difficult year for both Phillips and the
Senators. The team suffered a miserable season and saw GM Bryan Murray trade
away several players kick starting a rebuild. Despite trading players such as Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly, and Alex Kovalev Murray opted not to trade
Phillips who was set to become an unrestricted free agent. Instead, Phillips
resigned to remain with the only team he has played for. Chris Phillips and
Captain Daniel Alfredsson will play
out their career in Ottawa and be
the first players in the teams’ modern history to see their numbers one day
hanging in honor from the top of Scotia Bank Place
in Kanata.